Hex Bug Nano - So Kewl!

Ok, so M chose a hex bug at the Liberty Science Center gift shop. Which was fine by me since a) it wasn't about space, b) it was small, c) it was much less expensive than most other stuff in the shop.

Next day we played with the hex bug (by the way, M chose the Nano, a bug that looks like and acts like a roach). First, we built a small enclosure for it with the blocks. Then we gradually expanded it and made it into a maze with several rooms. Along the way we figured that we had to reinforce the corners, otherwise the Nano was going to bang its head against them until a small crack would appear. Then just like a real roach, it'd squeese through and run away.

After building several versions of block mazes, we came up with a better idea. We cut a few "doors" in an empty cardboard box, turned it upside down trapping Hex underneath and tried to guess which door it'd run out of. Sometimes it'd run out of one door only to immediate run into a door next to it. That was a lot of fun.

Then I wrote numbers above each door. I kept it simple - 1,2,3. We counted out 10 beads for the Nano to eat. Depending on which door it'd run out of, we'd give him that exact number of beads. M especially loved this game.

Then I tried surrounding some of the exits with enclosures of different geometry - a rectangle, a triangle and a semi-circle, to see which ones the Nano would negotiate faster (find its way back to the door it came out of). This wasn't particularly exciting though since the Nano kept getting stuck in the corners where enclosures were taped to the walls.

I knew that we could buy a whole habitat for the Hex. It also doubles as a battle arena. But it looked very boring. Plus I didn't care to spend any more money and buy any more plastic stuff that we'd have to bring back with us. So instead we decided to create our own Nano habitat. M and I sat down, decided on various obstacles and general layout.

Then we raided our junk pile and recycling box to find tubes, wires, cardboard boxes, and plastic cups for a labyrinth. The end result was a bit unexpected. By the time we finished gluing down the last piece of the habitat, our Nano got lost. We couldn't find it anywhere and so ended up going to the store to buy a new one.

Week 3 - Getting Used to It

Yes, more and more snow, but what else's new? Actually, lots of things. I think we're settling into the routine now or so it seems. Morning - I try to sleep in ('til 7:15 or so), but it usually doesn't happen, so I just pretend I'm asleep and stay in bed as long as I can. Then M helps me make the bed. Remember, it a fold-out loveseat, so it takes some strong muscles to fold it. M's muscles are getting much stronger since now he eats not one, but two breakfasts - one with his grandparents as they are getting ready for work and another one - with me after I finally get out of bed.

Then we try to do something fun - play with cans of fruits and veggies, for example. You'd be amazed at how many different games you can play with cans (full and empty) after you've stayed indoors for 3 weeks with M. For example, this is a canbot we built. M was responsible for the overall design, me - for hot-gluing it all together. M didn't want the robot to have eyes, just an alarm button to warn him of dust storms. There are also battery packs on the back and later on M wanted to add some "shooting things".

And then M built an Axiom (from Wall-E) out of all the cans from the pantry.

We've also started talking about Valentine's Day, although M calls it Balenvine Day. But I think he got the idea after making a little craft of wrapping a yarn around the heart shaped loom I made for him with a scrap of wood and some nails.

After that craft, M wanted to make me more gifts. One was a bracelet (he picked the beads for it). The other one was going to be a nice painting. M asked me what colors I wanted to see, then chose pink and told me not to look 'cause he wanted it to be a total surprise. A few minutes later he called me over and proudly showed the painting he made just for me - Pink Skeleton, complete with a rib cage!

Oh, and M also drew pictures of me, Babushka and the cat. Last time he drew pictures of people (or animals) was... never. So these are officially his first portraits. He was very happy with the result and even wanted to sign them (баба, мама, кот).

It was interesting that he drew me wearing black and grey pants and a fuzzy purple sweater. He then drew Babushka with the same colors because after all, that purple sweater is hers and I just borrow it sometimes. And then he drew our orange tabby cat. He made sure to draw the blue collar and the bright red tag Xander now wears.

So now we have another picture to add to our impromptu gallery wall.

I also started a word wall and it went well for a while. M did read the words for a while, but then kind of stopped paying attention. I think I need to remove the letters off the wall and start new word after a few days.

Oh, since this week was Chris' birthday, we wanted to celebrate (even though Chris is away). Unfortunately, we were snowed in again and couldn't go to the bakery for a dessert. So instead, Grandma and M made some cookies.

Our little backyard sledding hill is growing with all the snow.

So Babushka, M and myself went sledding there a few times, including a candle-lit evening sledding with hot компот to keep us warm. The rest of the time we were busy digging our way out of the snow. M has his little shovel and is now helping us out in earnest. Telling you, he's getting much stronger.

Oh, and today the weather was actually nice (meaning no snow or icy rain) and we ran some errands. Good news - even though I'm going to miss the huge Wake County Public Library annual book sale, I've found another book sale here, in NY. And I already went to it and got a few books. This is a much smaller sale, but it takes place in a very nice little library and all the books cost between $o.10 and $1. Can't beat that, right?

Our Fall Crafts

With Space being the theme of choice these days we don't get to do much of unrelated activities. The play stove in the play kitchen has been cold for days. The Candy Land game sits lonely on the shelf. The drum is collecting dust up in the attic (I actually don't mind this last one).

Surprisingly though, M makes an exception for holiday crafts and activities. But he definitely keeps these two types of activities separate. The family room and the hallway leading to it is where his space stuff is - rockets, shuttles, puzzles and games, and craft displays. The kitchen and the living room is where we decorate for the holidays.

Anyway, back to the fall crafts. Here's a couple we've made this far:

1. Leaf garland - I got the idea from The Artful Parent blog. The good news was that I found the silver oil pens on sale at the craft store. The bad news was that they were on sale for a good reason - they weren't writing too well, especially the thinner ones. But I gave M the thicker of the two pens and he enjoyed drawing with them on the leaves.

2. Contact paper collage - first, we went on a walk to collect all the different leaves and flowers. That was a lot of fun on its own, kind of like a scavenger hunt. Then we dried them (all those volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica do come handy after all). Then M decided that he needed to snip all the stems with his little scissors (hard work, but he did well). But the most exciting thing for me was that M started and finished this entire collage BY HIMSELF! Usually he asks for my help just a few minutes into the project or loses interest altogether.

I think, given that it's the end of November, we'll wrap up our fall crafts for this year. Time to work on winter crafts :)

More Space Stuff

Are you tired yet? Well, M's fascination with space is nowhere near over, just the opposite. We read The Magic School Bus Takes a Moonwalk daily and The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System - almost daily. That's in addition to lots and lots of other awesome books about planets and galaxies and astronauts that we go through several times a day.

We also finished the space helmet. It's giant! I clearly over-estimated my child's head size, but at least he won't get stuck in it. Plus now even adults can try it on (and believe me, we have no shortage of the takers).

Now when M goes anywhere where there might be other children (or adults) he wants to dress up in not only the space suit, but also wear the helmet and the "oxygen tanks". And when he's not in this uniform, he likes to approach people and announce to them "I'm going to be an astronaut when I grow up". He then proceeds to introduce me as Ms. Frizzle (the awesome, but strangely-dressed teacher from The Magic School Bus series).

He addresses me as Ms. Frizzle throughout the day as in "Ms. Frizzle, we have a problem" or "Ms. Frizzle, you are the strangest teacher in school" or "Ms. Frizzle, I have a question for you" or "Ms. Frizzle, take us to the magic school bus". And yes, he addresses himself in plural sometimes because while I'm Ms. Frizzle, he is her entire class. Oh, and our cat, Xander, is renamed "Liz, the lizard" on these occasions.

Being Ms. Frizzle is really not so bad at all. Especially compared to all my previous gigs as Winni the Pooh, the ghost, Lolochka the puppy, Zamatayu the dog, Luna 3 the lunar module, the witch, etc, etc. At least I no longer have to speak in alarmingly low, startlingly high or unnaturally constipated voices. And I get to hear things such as "That was a great field trip, Ms. Frizzle" pretty much after every playdate and outing.

But I started running out of ideas for space-related games and craft activities. Thankfully, our local teacher's store had this awesome book - Solar System - Curriculum Based Hands-on Activities. It's for Grades 1-3, but I looked through it quickly and it seemed that many of the activities could be easily adapted to a younger child.

M was very excited when I told him we'll be doing more space experiments. So far we've done the experiment to see how impact craters are formed and why a space ship can't land on a gas giant. This sounds fancy, but all it took was some sand and potatoes for the former and an egg and a coin for the latter.

We also made a couple of catapults. One was large, simple and not very spectacular. The other one, slightly more complicated and much smaller was awesome. It shot little foil projectiles clear across the room!

Then we took a little break to look at some pictures of space stuff. And that's how we accidentally stumbled upon a new game. We lined up the cards, set the catapult some distance away and tried landing foil meteors on different space objects. Then M tried to launch the little astronaut into a black hole to see him get spaghettified.

eye-cose-a-HEE-dron

A quick and simple math craft that I saw in the last Family Fun issue and that M and I did a few days ago. I couldn't think of what else to do that day after a successful crayon-melting experiment (trying to see what would happen when a spaceship (crayon) flies too close to the Sun (our oven)).

Fortunately, I had 20 small paper plates that were taking up valuable shelf space in my kitchen for the last couple of years. M got to use the stapler, so he loved it. He also made an observation ('cause you know, astronauts observe and experiment) that the resulting polyhedron looked somewhat like a ball. Except it had lots of surfaces and edges (new words!) and wouldn't bounce.

Rockets, Luna 3 and the Gas Giant Jupiter

Yep, we're still in the space age here at home. M still dons his astronaut suit almost every day and calls himself "космонавт Марк" or "ashtronaut Mark" (depending on who he's talking to). He takes his new mission very seriously too!

Just this past Monday he wanted to play with a slightly older boy. So I told him to first introduce himself and then invite the boy to play. So M immediately went over to the boy and said in his high-pitched voice: "Hi! I'm Mark. I'm ashtronaut." When the boy didn't respond, M explained himself further "One, two, three... Blast-off!" with an unmistakeable geasture of a rocket that's taking off.

Seriously though, not a day goes by without him requesting to make some new decorations for our Space Room (that's our family room and the adjacent hallway).

In addition to our pumpkin-box turned spaceship, two rockets from SparkCon festival (yes, they are still surviving) and a small, but ever-growing collection of space shuttles and plastic astronauts, we now have all of these:

Spaceships Taking Off from the Surface of Mars (you can see the big bright Sun and if you look very carefully right next to it there's Mercury). This particular art project, done about 3 weeks ago, used up a ton of glitter and left even more of it all over the family room.

"Luna 3" probe - my proudest creation! It looks just like the real thing (at least based on a picture in a sticker book). We used egg cartons, foil and some odds and ends.

Another large-size undertaking that we call "Earth-rise Seen from the Moon by the Apollo Crew" (you can see all the stickers of the Apollo modules, the astronaut, the lunar buggy and, of all things, a spiral galaxy). It actually looks good enough that for a while M pretended that it was an IMAX screen - he'd pull up a chair, sit down and "watch a movie".

Then we had a bit of a break and went to the Life and Science Museum in Durham. You know, the one with the drums. You know, the ones that M used to drum on for hours on end refusing to see or try anything else in the museum. You know, that's why we didn't renew our membership there last year (plus it's quite a drive from us).

Anyway, they have a life size model of an Apollo module, space costumes, a walk-in Apollo control module and some space-themed hands-on displays. Oh, and a big rocket right in front of the museum! Sure, this time around M spent most of the time inside the Apollo capsule pretending to count-down to blast-off.

Back home we also made this little display that we decided to call "Moon in the Sky" (yeah, not very original, I know).

and the "Solar System" mobile (again, not very original, but that's what this mobile is all about).

and also this "Space Shuttle Taking Off from the Launch Pad" picture (ok, so I did draw all the elements, but M helped me glue them on and he was responsible for the fire and clouds of smoke from the engines).
Then also there are these two original paintings. One is called "Canstellation of Stars with Glitter" and the other one - "Spiral Galaxies in Space". Guess which one is which.

Oh, I just realized that I still haven't taken pictures of our pumpkin-box spaceship and three other solar systems that decorate the family room. Hmm, well, to be continued...

SparkCon Weekend Blast-Off

I had no idea, but apparently every year there's this big festival in Raleigh called SparkCon. I'm not going to explain what it's all about since you can read about it over at SparkCon's site. Besides, I'm not 100% sure I understand all of it anyway. But here's what SparkCon meant for M and I this past weekend (Chris was busy being a soldier - running, marching, doing paperwork, and trying to find his way in the woods without a GPS).

So, first and foremost M didn't care very much to go to a festival. That was a not-so-promising beginning. Then we got there very early and he didn't really want to do any crafts at the crafts tent. Slowly he got into it and we did a couple of projects that involved mostly stickers, but he was very cranky through it all.

Things were getting from bad to worse. As the festival was getting busier, M decided that he wouldn't walk, but rather had to be wheeled in a stroller. Fine... So we strolled the entire length of the Fayetteville Street, checking out artists that were busy creating chalk paintings. Here are some of the ones I loved the most.

Then, on the way back we spied this super-cool water sculpture and M wanted to try it out. Perfect! Finally, out of his stroller! As he waited patiently for his turn, a couple of kids in front of him knocked down the main bamboo supports and the entire installation fell down.

The embarrased parents rushed in to right it up. Just as we almost, but not quite fixed the darn thing, another little kid climbed on the low stool to pour water in, leaned on the pipe a bit too much and sent it tumbling down again. Once again, all the parents (and some passerbies) rushed in to save the moment.

In the mean time, M was running back and forth to watch the water flow down the pipes and back into the bucket. Sure thing, he tripped over the raffia strings and knocked down the ENTIRE installation. After being knocked down 3 times in about 3 minutes, this structure did not look the same any longer. The pipes were cracked and wouldn't line up. But the kids were still fascinated by it. Besides, it brought so many total strangers together as they valiantly, but vainly tried to re-build it. So I think it was definitely the most hands-on activity that required team work and fostered a sense of community at SparkCon. And for that it deserves special recognition (that's why I'm writing about it in all the details; besides it gave me a great idea for a water feature for M's playground).

Warmed up with all this fixing-things stuff, we stopped by the ScrapExchange tent. Let me tell you, it's been so much fun that now I'm thinking about taking M to Durham at some point to their studio for some extended crafting. I mean, how can it not be super-duper awesome - there are bags and boxes and barrells filled to the bream with all sorts of scraps - fabric, plastic parts of all shapes and sizes, paper, sticky paper, stickers, tape, yarn, etc, etc - and you and your kid are left to create something out of all (or part) of it using nothing but scissors and again, some sticky tape. Awesome awesomeness, that's what I call it!

Evidently many other people shared my opinion because it was easily the busiest place on Fayetteville St in the early afternoon. And I think parents got into the building process with as much or more enthusiasm than their little ones. A couple of boys and their dads built rockets and, predictably, set off a chain reaction - now every boy wanted to make a rocket. M was no exception. It took us a little while, but we've our first rocket. It was held together primarily with stickers and rubberbands (I won't be surprised if NASA hires M or me one of these days).

After that it was time to go 'cause it was getting late and M was obviously tired. But he made me promise that we'd return the next day to build an even bigger rocket. To be perfectly honest, he didn't have to push too hard on this one. Come to think of it, I might've even suggested this idea to him myself and he replied "Hooray!".

The next day, Sunday, both of us could hardly wait for the festival to open. We got to the ScrapExchange tent and for a few minutes were the only ones. Right away, we started on the rocket. But it was a bigger one, with a more advanced design and, after the Saturday stumpede, fewer materials to work with. Took us a bit longer, but we've managed. Well, M mostly kept bringing me various odds and ends and asking to add them to the rocket. That's, for example, why our rocket is probably the only one with an attached hanger (hey, every rocket needs it to weather the storms in; yeah, I know, it's spelled differently).

And then we built a few other things - a pair of binoculars that gave M an idea to build a robot that he named ZigZag-a-Roll (yeah, sometimes he surprises me with the names he picks). If you look at the robot carefully, you can still see the binoculars - they are now robot's legs. Finally, M fashioned a gun (what else) out of some spare parts.

It was time to move on and we walked down the street, admiring the chalk art. Ok, I was doing the admiring and M was mostly insisting on moving on. Then we got to the blocks area where for a while M was the only kid for a while. He promptly collected all the blocks and attempted to build a house with a door, but ended up with a tall long wall. Still, he was happy with the result and so was I.

That, plus a few hot dogs and a bucket of french fries really made his weekend!